All pictures in this post from: Salshan Photography
Following on from the Writing On The Wall Show at The Rep Theatre at the beginning of this year – a performance of graffiti art, spoken word and percussion brought together for a live audience, I have been delivering a few mini versions of that sequence at various venues. The most recent is at the 02 Arena, for the Brit Writers Awards. Again I chose 3 poets, along with my regular drummer Andy Mason, but this time also had a cellist at hand called Philip Shepphard. Together we created poetry, percussion and painting just the right combo, how i like it. It was done as the opening sequence to the entire show, so had to be sharp and on-form. Rehearsals were tough and intensive, and I hope I didn’t push the artists too hard, but I hope they agree it was all worth it in the end. The official video of the performance itself will be added below soon, but for now, here is a few pictures and videos of the poets performing during the event and outside of the venue…
David J was one of the 3 poets I used for the sequence. All of the poets were dressed as if part of the audience, and were seated at the tables. David J interupts the sequence of events and begins his poem from within the crowd.
Jo Bell, our second poet, takes over from David J from the other side of the room….
Then Don Shahada jumps into the sequence by a staged telephone call which is part of his sequence.
All the hard work pays off, i just stand back and enjoy the ten minute sequence that took weeks and weeks of co-ordination to get spot-on, on the night.
Andy Mason is my favourite percussionist. He was riding along with the poets and creating soundscapes in sync with the poems. Not just backing beats, but rather he was interpreting the poems through his drumming increasing and decreasing in pace where necessary to compliment each poem.
Although my role in this sequence was directorial, I did put together a video which the three poems lead into. I put together a video about the power of words, lots of layered footage, a kind of abstract video projection of the spraycan, timelapse footage of a graffiti words being painted, the pen writing onto the page, and lots of other abstract visuals. David J did some freestyle poetry over the top of the video along with percussionist and cellist Philip Shepherd who you can see in the background on the stage. Although the entire sequence had different mediums brought together, the poetry, the percussionist and the cellist all creating together, this last video sequence brought them all together in one this time with the added visuals.
Just outside the 02 Arena, I just had to do a quick film with David J with such a lovely background. Stuck on my wide angle lense and bingo…
More videos to be added here of the performances once they are ready…
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